


Winter War; Spring Peace

by SereneSorrow



Category: Bleach
Genre: GinIchi WinterFest 2020, Injury, M/M, War, implied PTSD problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22726138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: Gin and Ichigo are soldiers in a normal human war.~I think it's less depressing than it sounds... but maybe I have that backwards?
Relationships: Ichimaru Gin/Kurosaki Ichigo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14
Collections: GinIchi WinterFest 2020





	Winter War; Spring Peace

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this story is because the event is 'Winter' and there's a convenient 'Winter War' right there in canon, BUT despite how I tried I couldn't think of anything that would follow canon, so this is more of a vague combination of fantasy versions of World War I as well as Captain America and Falcon's MCU work with veterans instead of anything grounded in reality...

Snow crunching like gravel under heavy, thick soled boots.

Ice cracking like a shot under trampling footsteps.

Gin looked out over the edge of the trench and ducked down again before a spray of bullets hit the dirt, throwing it up and over the edge to rain down over his head.

At the same time a body rolled over the edge in a rush, slid in and dropped down beside him. Unfamiliar at first until the newcomer pulled his helmet off and brushed a hand through sweaty hair the brightest shade of orange any human could ever grow.

Relief slowed the pounding rush of Gin's heartbeat as Ichigo grinned arrogantly at him from where he stood, now safe from the hail of cold metal.

***  
***

Winter in the trenches was a frozen wasteland of hazards and potential death at every turn. No one had enough to eat and no one stayed warm enough. Everyone grew thin and huddled together for warmth.

The captains looked the other way whenever a pair of soldiers should sneak off around a bend in the subterranean corridors and warm each other up more intimately.

Ichigo, that brilliant flaming sunlight amid the snow, pulled him by the hand or dragged him by the sleeve more times than Gin could count, and even with his back against the cold dirt Gin was warmed by the touch of his light against his sides. The kiss of warmth on his lips and face.

***  
***

Soon to be scars along his hand and wrist.

A chunk out of his right arm. Infection setting in.

Field hospital overflowing, and he was leaving the front. Shipped back home before he could protest, too delirious to know what went on around him.

A nurse with hair nearly the right shade of red-orange, he held onto that sight, followed the color out of his delirium and back to the world of the living.

***  
***

Her name was Matsumoto Rangiku, and she was as bright as his Ichigo when the sun filtered through the windows just right and shone on her, but she wasn't his Ichigo and she had other patients to tend to.

Still, Gin treasured the time she spent with him, sneaking sips of cool beer in to him and playing cards as she gossiped about the doctors and the other patients they saw pass by outside his door.

***  
***

He didn't lose the arm, he would have been embarrassed if he had, losing the whole thing to infection from only a chunk out of the meat.

He was in hospital long enough though, for the war to end, for the soldiers to come home.

***  
***

Gin found him again in the VA hospital.

It seemed he was looking in but not daring to enter one of the group therapy rooms. He was thin, dark shadows under his eyes, and Gin watched him turn away from the door to shuffle away down the corridor.

Gin ignored his own destination and followed his sunlight, his waning star.

***  
***

The sun shone again, as Gin coaxed Ichigo out from behind clouded eyes and through shadowed nights. Let his dim but brightening light kiss along scars as he ran fingers trembling not from cold through bright orange hair and over papery but warming skin.

Winter was over, spring was here.

Gin smiled at the sun and the sun smiled back upon him once again.

**Author's Note:**

> The injury is based on when Gin took the Hogyoku from Aizen and Aizen injured him trying to grab it back, because coincidentally I JUST watched that episode like three days before I had this idea.


End file.
